[Cataclysm] Arctic & Black Wolf Makes Me Happy

Arctic & Black Wolf

When I first saw the first ever Shaman cosmetic minor glyph, Arctic Wolf, I was very happy. And then I spotted Glyph of the Black Wolf¹ , and I was even happier. And then MMO Champ posted a picture of the Arctic Glyph, and I was distinctly underwhelmed. Black Wolf aside, the difference is extremely minor when you’re already a ghost, and it sort of highlights how OLD these models look compared to all the shiny spirit beasts. I’m not sure I’d really noticed that I’d glyphed to make my form different.

Originally posted by Boubouille at MMO Champion

I am sure many shaman will disagree with me on this, but I’d love for our Ghost Wolf forms to look a bit like Skoll, or this other Ghost Wolf. Actually, cooler than changing colour would be changing animal – and there’s already a plethora of spirit beasts out there for Blizz to chose from.

Well, this isn’t just about Arctic Wolf, but there have been some changes to the Beta Build over the past couple of days, and I haven’t posted on Elemental Shaman stuff for a while, so it feels like about time to be witty and insightful about Yet Another Beta Build That Will Change In 2 Weeks Anyway. As ever these Shaman focused patch notes come from MMO Champion.

Elemental

• Magma Totem base damage increased by 33%.
• Fire Nova base damage increased by 33%.
• Rolling Thunder is now a Tier 3 talent, down from Tier 4. Mana regeneration increased from 1% to 2%.
• Improved Fire Nova moved to Enhancement.
• Elemental Reach no longer increases the range of Thunderstorm, now affects the range of all your Shock spells. (Old – Just Flame Shock)

Enhancement

• Unleash Elements now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
• Totemic Vigor is gone.
• Improved Fire Nova is now a Tier 4 Enhancement Talent – Increases the damage done by your Fire Nova by 10/20% and reduces the cooldown by 2/4 sec.

Restoration

• Improved Water Shield now also procs from Greater Healing Wave.

What do these changes mean?

Blizz are following through on their promise to make Earthquake our primary source of AoE, for Elemental Shaman. Improved Fire Nova is a long way down in the current Beta Enhancement Tree, so is no longer an option for us ‘mental shaman. Personally I’m not sad about this, although I find the cooldown on Earthquake a bit awkward, but hey, that’s what we have Chain Lightning for, right? The increased percentage of damage for Fire Nova and Magma Totem is really a benefit for E

Rolling Thunder continues to remove the need for any points in Convection, although Convection is likely to be a useful levelling talent. Rolling Thunder scales with Intellect, so if you’ve got a basic elemental set you are going to do less damage and regen less mana than a raid geared Elemental Shaman. Luckily we can also get Rolling Thunder sooner rather than later now, which should reduce mana problems a bit while levelling.

The change to Unleash Elements is a damn good one, as it’s been very irritating while soloing to pull and then find Unleash Elements gives you a range error.

And now for the Glyphs

The below list is taken from MMO Champion, and augmented by my own digging. Bolded Text is stuff I’ve found in addition to MMO Champ, grey text is WotLK value. There are old Glyphs that are still available but unchanged, the full list is available here.

Edit: I’ve also divided these up into Prime/Major/Minor, thanks to Hylas for the divisions and lists of existing Glyphs still in the game.

Prime

• Earthliving Weapon – Increases the effectiveness of your Earthliving weapon’s periodic healing by 20%. (Increases the chance for your Earthliving weapon to trigger by 5%.)
• Flame Shock – Increases the duration of your Flame Shock spell by 50%. (Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Flame Shock damage by 60%.)
• Lava Burst – Your Lava Burst spell deals 10% more damage. (Your Lava Burst spell gains an additional 10% of your spellpower.)
• Lava Lash – Damage on your Lava Lash is increased by an additional 20% if your weapon is enchanted with Flametongue. (Up from 10%)
• Riptide – Increases the duration of Riptide by 40%. (Increased by 6 sec)²
• Water Shield – Increases the passive mana regeneration of your Water Shield spell by 50%. (Up from 30%)
• Plus: Earth Shield, Feral Spirits, Fire Elemental Totem, Flametongue Weapon, Lightning Bolt, Stormstrike, Windfury Weapon

Major

• Chain Heal – Increases healing done by your Chain Heal spell to targets beyond the first by 15%, but decreases the amount received by the initial target by 10%. (Your Chain Heal heals 1 additional target.)
• Chain Lightning -  Your Chain Lightning spell now strikes 2 additional targets, but deals 10% less initial damage. (Your Chain Lightning strikes 1 additional target.)
• Elemental Mastery – While your Elemental Mastery ability is active, you take 20% less damage from all sources. (Reduces the cooldown of your Elemental Mastery ability by 30 sec.)
• Fire Nova – Increases the radius of your Fire Nova spell by 5 yards. (Reduces the cooldown of your Fire Nova spell by 3 seconds.)
• Ghost Wolf – Your Ghost Wolf form grants an additional 10% movement speed. (Heals by 1% of Maximum Health every 5 secs.)
• Healing Stream Totem – Your Healing Stream Totem also increases the Fire, Frost, and Nature resistance of party and raid members within 30 yards by 150. (Your Healing Stream Totem heals for an additional 20%.)
• Hex – Reduces the cooldown of your Hex spell by 15 sec. (Increases the damage your Hex target can take before the Hex effect is removed by 20%.)
• Totemic Recall – Causes your Totemic Recall ability to return an additional 50% of the mana cost of any recalled totems.
• Lightning Shield – Your Lightning Shield can no longer drop below 3 charges from dealing damage to attackers.
• Grounding Totem – When your Grounding Totem absorbs a spell, it attempts to reflect that spell on its caster, but the cooldown of your Grounding Totem is increased by 45 sec.
• Shamanistic Rage *New* – Activating your Shamanistic Rage ability also cleanses you of all dispellable Magic debuffs.
• Plus: Frost Shock, Healing Wave, Shocking, Stoneclaw Totem, Thunder

Minor

• Arctic Wolf – Alters the appearance of your Ghost Wolf transformation, causing it to resemble an arctic wolf.
• Black Wolf - Alters the appearance of your Ghost Wolf transformation, causing it to resemble a black wolf.³
• Plus: Astral Recall, Renewed Life, Thunderstorm, Water Breathing, Water Walking

I must admit that I am somewhat wary. Is it me or do most of the Elemental focused ones seem to be PvP related? Or, if survivability is a big issue in Cataclysm raids, are our glyphs going to have to make up for those specs where Ancestral Resolve, Elemental Warding and Spark of Life are completely ignored? Of course, the major disclaimer here is that these are the first iteration of Beta Glyphs. THEY ARE GOING TO CHANGE A LOT. I know that, so I’m not upset about the above. So far it seems like Lightning Shield and Lava Burst may be part of our standard choices, along with the new Flame Shock Glyph. With the new Glyph interface, I am much more enthusiastic about having these utility/damage reduction glyphs available to swap in.

Although note that these Glyphs have a 1 hour cooldown, so raiders are still going to need to weigh up pros and cons, rather than tailoring their Glyphs on a per-fight basis like we currently can. Good thing? Bad thing? Currently being able to swap glyphs in on a per fight basis is a pro for the current system, but I’ve always been inclined towards not changing my glyphs that often. I suspect this 1 hour cooldown is likely to go unnoticed by less pressured players, and be an annoyance to hardcore/serious players who value being able to switch glyphs around.

THAT SAID, I don’t think glyph switches will be necessary for optimum DPS. Not as such, but I can see fights where the 10% speed increase might be more useful than (say) 20% damage reduction. I can see the new glyph system being great for healers, when you look at the new Healing Stream Totem – suddenly that Elemental Resistance Totem doesn’t have to replace a HS or Tranquil Mind totem!

1. There’s no picture of the ‘Black Ghost Wolf’ form yet, but you can see the in-game model of ‘black wolf’ here. [↩]
2. Thanks to Hylas for corrections [↩]
3. Note that this isn’t being sold by the in-game glyph vendor, but it does have a recipe [↩]

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Tags: Cataclysm Beta, Chain Lightning, elemental mastery, Glyphs, Shaman, Speculation, Talents